This disclosure concerns an invention relating generally to safety devices for preventing unauthorized and/or accidental discharge of firearms, and more specifically to ejection port locks for shotguns, handguns, and the like.
For safety purposes, it is generally desirable for handguns, shotguns, and other firearms to be stored in a secured area, such as a gun locker or safe, to prevent unauthorized use by children or others. However, since secured areas can sometimes be breached (as when children locate hidden locker keys), and firearms may become accessible to unintended users when they are removed from secured areas for use (e.g., immediately before or after hunting trips and the like), alternative means of preventing unauthorized discharge of firearms have been developed, such as trigger locks. However, trigger locks have limited effectiveness because they often don""t fit particular models of firearms well unless the locks are specifically made for the models in question. Additionally, it is possible for some loaded firearms to accidentally discharge even when a trigger lock is present. Therefore, it would be useful to have available alternative forms of preventing unauthorized discharge of firearms, particularly if such apparata are readily adaptable to fit a wide variety of firearms having different sizes and configurations.
The invention involves a gun lock which engages the ejection port of a firearm to prevent unauthorized use. To give the reader a basic understanding of some of the advantageous features of the invention, following is a brief summary of preferred versions of the ejection port gun lock. As this is merely a summary, it should be understood that more details regarding the preferred versions may be found in the Detailed Description set forth elsewhere in this document. The claims set forth at the end of this document then define the various versions of the invention in which exclusive rights are secured.
The ejection port gun lock includes an elongated body which extends between a front surface and a rear surface, with the length of the body between the front and rear surfaces extending along the length of the gun when the gun lock is in use. A slide member is slidably affixed to the body to move along a slide path between an engaged position and a disengaged position (with the slide path being oriented generally parallel to the length of the body), and the slide member includes an elongated engagement portion which extends generally parallel to the slide path. When the slide member rests within a gun ejection port in the engaged position, the engagement portion engages the gun so that the body cannot be removed therefrom, whereas the gun lock is removable when the slide member is in the disengaged position. A locking member is provided on the body adjacent to the slide path, and the locking member is movable between a locked position wherein it extends into the slide path to penetrate a locking cavity defined in the slide member when the slide member is in its engaged position (thereby preventing motion of the slide member into its disengaged position), and an unlocked position outside of the slide path.
The slide member may be slidably constrained with respect to the body by defining a body slot extending between an interior surface of the body and its exterior surface, and by having a portion of the slide member ride within the body slot. Preferably, the slide member bears a protruding handle which is accessible from the exterior surface of the body, and which may be used to actuate the slide member along the slide path. The handle beneficially provides a visible indication to a user as to whether the slide member is in its engaged or disengaged position.
Ejection port gun locks of the foregoing nature can have their bodies and slide members configured to fit the ejection ports of handguns (as illustrated by the exemplary gun lock 100 shown in FIGS. 1-7 of the accompanying drawings, wherein the body 102 is configured to rest outside the ejection port with the slide member 136 fitting therein), or to fit the ejection ports of shotguns or other firearms (as illustrated by the exemplary gun lock 200 shown in FIGS. 8-11 of the accompanying drawings, wherein both the body 202 and the slide member 240 may fit within the ejection port). Additionally, the slide members may be formed as a single piece (as with the slide member 240 of FIGS. 8-11), or in multiple pieces which may be spring-biased with respect to each other to allow them to fit ejection ports of varying size (as with the slide member engagement portion 138 and slide member supplementary portion 140 of FIGS. 1-7).